Fate has Bite
by Anzaraneth
Summary: Set in New Moon. Bella and Jacob aren't as close as they are in the book. Fate has Bite; becuase life is life, and it always tries to bring you down.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Bella stared at the water so far below her, crashing against the rocks and churning sluggishly. For a moment, she hesitated. Did she really want to do this? But it was only for a moment.

Bella stepped forward, determined once again. She stared across the wide expanse of the ocean in front of her, no longer afraid. She took another step forward, and the edge of her foot was sticking off the ledge. She glanced at it for a moment, pure instinct taking over, and she almost launched herself over the edge right then. But something made her stop. She paused, listening. The anticipation built inside of her, making her anxious to get this over with.

She heard a set of footsteps on the path she had taken, and readied herself for the dive. She let the footsteps get as close as she dared before closing her eyes and letting herself fall forward, headfirst, into the air above the rocky ocean water.

She opened her eyes as she fell, surveying the gap between herself and the water. As that distance closed, she realized she wasn't screaming. Bella smiled to herself. She didn't know why, but somehow, this felt _right_, like she was meant to do this.

She was able to close her eyes just as she entered the murky water. It was luck more than anything else that she hadn't happened to hit anything on impact. Bella quickly turned and swam for the surface, intent on repeating the experience. As soon as her head broke the surface, Bella looked for the beach and swam for it.

Upon arriving, quite a bit later, at the La Push beach, Bella proceeded to make her way towards the little path that led to the cliff she had just jumped off of. She reached the cliff, and as she looked at the ledge, Bella froze. Standing between her and her great escape stood a sight she thought she'd never see again.


	2. Love Haunts Us All

Chapter 2:

Love Haunts Us All

Bella's eyes grew wide, and her mouth dropped open. She stumbled back a step, falling backwards and sliding back down the path a ways. She stopped her descent by grabbing onto the nearest tree and holding on.

She laid there for a minute, thinking about what she had seen. Eventually, she got up and made her way to the top again.

But when she got there, it wasn't there. She would have sworn that it had really been there. But it wasn't there now, and there were no tracks to prove it.

Slowly, Bella sat down, a tear making its painstakingly slow way down her face. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs, resting her chin on her knees. She sat like that for a while, dripping wet, tears running down her face, until it began to rain.

As the droplets splattered onto the ground around her, occasionally hitting her, Bella tilted her head back, letting the drops fall on her face as she stared at the dark clouds above her.

"Why?" she growled. "Why torture me like this? Haven't you had your fill of making me hurt?" Her sight was blurring, full of unshed tears. She was angry, now, and she wiped her hand across her face, trying to wipe away her tears. "Haven't you hurt me enough?! Just leave me alone!"

Bella stood up, still staring at the sky. "Wherever you are," she yelled, "just stay there! You've hurt me just fine from there already! So just stay away!" Bella immediately turned and fled down the path, heading for her truck.

In the surrounding forest, a very pale figure raised from its crouch, staring after Bella as she ran from its sight. Its eyes were a deep black color, and were slightly widened after hearing the girl shout angrily at the sky.

It heard Bella get in her truck a few minutes later, and the figure turned and headed for Bella's house. On the way there, it was deep in thought about what Bella had said. It found a convenient vantage point and crouched there, waiting for the delicious-smelling girl to arrive at her home.

Bella arrived, still soaking wet, about ten minutes later, the sound of her truck's engine preceding her. She slid off the seat, slamming the door as she turned to approach her house door. She reached under the eave for the key, unlocking the door before replacing the key. She slammed the door behind her, trudging up the steps to the bathroom.

She slipped out of her wet clothes, leaving them on the tiled floor as she stepped into the shower. She let the warm water wash over her, erasing all traces of the cold and wet.

Half an hour later, Bella walked out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, her wet clothes in hand. She walked down to the washer and threw them in before tramping back up the stairs to her room. She threw on an old t-shirt and her favorite sweats. Bella picked up a novel at random and plopped down on her bed, putting her headphones on and turning her CD player on. She turned the volume to max, letting the notes wash over her as she flipped through the pages of a book she'd read twenty times already.

Bella looked up after she noticed that it was quiet. _Oh,_ she thought to herself. _The CD's already played through._ She slipped off her headphones and glanced at the glowing numbers of her alarm clock. It said 4:30. She stared out her window at the rain coming down in sheets. When she glanced at her clock again, it said 4:52. _I need something else in my life,_ she thought as she got up from her bed, almost tripping as she went down the stairs.

Bella made it to the kitchen in one piece, and decided that dinner tonight would be fairly simple. She pulled out a carton of eggs and a frying pan, intending to make fried eggs.

Bella sat her plate on the table and got a glass of milk to go with it. As she ate, she stared out the window again. Rain always put her in a bad mood. She scowled as she finished and put her dishes in the sink, going back up to her room afterwards.

The figure had crept closer to the house during the time that Bella had been there. Now, it was perched in the tree outside her room's window. It watched as Bella resumed her reading until her father got home, at which point she went downstairs again and cooked him dinner. When he finished his dinner, Bella washed his dishes, as well as the dishes she'd used earlier. Then she went upstairs for the final time that day and got ready for bed.

As Bella lay in her bed, sleeping, the figure inched her window open and crept inside.


	3. To Forgive

Chapter 3:

To Forgive

_As Bella lay in her bed, sleeping, the figure inched her window open and crept inside._

Bella slept as she normally did these days: tossing and turning, and sometimes screaming. Tonight wasn't a night she screamed on. In fact, she slept almost as well as she had previous to—previous to a certain someone's prolonged absence.

These days, Bella skipped over his name, not even realizing, anymore, that she did so. It was just her instinct—her survival instinct. Because Bella barely survived when she heard someone else speak his name. If that was hearing someone else say it, how much worse do you think she would get hit if she actually dared to think it herself? Even her subconscious avoided any thoughts pertaining to him, for just that reason.

Bella didn't even dream of him, anymore. So there was no chance that the figure could hear his name said by the sweet-smelling angel that had captured its attention. It stood there, all night, and into the morning, waiting to hear that name come from those delicate lips of Bella's. But the name it was looking for did not come forth.

As Bella stirred, beginning to wake, the figure left the way it had come, easing the window shut and stealing one last glance at the beautiful human inside. It watched from the shadows amid the trees as Bella woke fully and went to school.

It paced in the cover of the trees as it waited for school to let out, so that Bella could return.

Bella's day went as it usually did: she got up, ate breakfast, and went to school. At school, she sat through her classes, the teachers not even bothering to call on her any more; it's not like she was paying attention in the first place, and even if she had been, she wouldn't have cared enough to answer. At lunch, if she actually went to the cafeteria, she would sit the first place she saw, not caring what anyone else thought, any more. If she didn't go to the cafeteria, she would sit in her next class, waiting for class to start so that school would be that much closer to being over. After classes let out, she would make her way to her truck and drive home, alone with her thoughts.

She followed this same pattern today. When school finally released her, Bella ran to her truck, almost tripping several times. For some reason, she was anxious to get home today. Ever since yesterday, she had been feeling strange. The drive home went as usual, and she got home in the same amount of time as she usually did.

Bella killed the engine, and pulled the key out of the ignition. But instead of getting out, like usual, she sat there for a few minutes. Nothing seemed amiss, but something in the back of her head told her to wait. So she did. But after a few minutes, the feeling went away, and she climbed out of the 

truck. She unlocked the door and went inside, automatically walking to the stairs and going up them. She walked into her room and shut the door behind her. She sat her books on her desk and sat on her bed. Staring at the floor, Bella noticed something different. One of the floorboards was slightly raised, as if it wasn't secured. Curious, Bella kneeled on the floor next to it.

She pressed her fingers to the raised sides, hoping to pry it up. She tugged at it, but it didn't budge. She turned around, searching for something to use, like a crowbar, to pry up the board. Finding nothing, Bella turned back to stare at the raised floorboard. But the board was no longer raised. Bella ran her fingers across the smooth floor, trying to find a loose spot. But she didn't find so much as a crack.

Mystified, Bella sat back on her heels. She closed her eyes and shook her head ever-so-slightly, once. As she sat there, her eyes closed, she smelled something. It was just a hint of something, but she decided to follow it. She opened her eyes and stood, following the scent to her window. She took a moment and suppressed the memories that wanted to surface before easing the window open. It hadn't been _that_ long since it had been frequently used, but it creaked all the same as it slowly opened.

Leaning her head outside, Bella caught the same scent, only slightly stronger. With a start, she realized what it was that she was smelling, and she yanked he head back inside and slammed the window shut.

Bella sank to the floor, her face filled with horror. First she imagined images. Now she imagined smells. What was next? Imagining that he was standing right next to her, trying to comfort her like he used to?


	4. Was it Real?

Chapter 4:

Was it Real?

Was E—_he_ really here? Or was this just another hallucination? Bella sobbed quietly, shuddering away from the little hope that the thought brought up.

The figure darted into the trees, anger skittering across its face—anger at itself, for letting it get so absorbed in its reminiscing that it had barely noticed when Bella had arrived home. It had only had a second before she walked in the door. So the figure had pressed the board back into place, gently, so as not to make too much noise or to break the board. A second later the figure was sitting outside Bella's window, hiding itself in plain sight, waiting for the girl to come to her room.

_It watched, eyes wide, as it noticed the board, raised above the others, as she walked past it, unaware of its altered presence. It waited, tense, for a moment that would allow it to dart past her and correct the mistake._

_And then she noticed the board, standing out so greatly against the rest of her floor, smooth and uniform. It watched, eagerly waiting for her to look away, so that it could correct its foolish mistake. And there was the figure's opportunity. It took it, opening the window so fast that it didn't make a sound. It darted inside and shoved the board down within the unneeded blink of its eye, and was perched outside Bella's window, the window firmly closed, before Bella turned back to the board._

_Bella was perplexed for a moment, staring dumbfounded at the spot where she knew the board had been. Then she moved her fingers along the floor in front of her, attempting to find that board. After a few moments, Bella gave up and sat back, her shoulders slumping slightly in defeat. She closed her eyes and shook her head once._

_The figure began to relax, as it appeared that Bella was done discovering its mistakes. A moment later, though, Bella opened her eyes and stood up, slowly coming around to face the window. The figure moved, hiding itself in the cover of the woods, making sure it had a clear view of Bella's window. She approached the glass, standing before it for a moment before slowly raising it enough for her to poke her head out. She did so, immediately pulling herself back inside and slamming the window shut. Bella then took a quick step away from the window._

The figure waited several moments for Bella to reappear, but for some reason, she remained out of sight. The figure waited a few more moments before cautiously approaching Bella's window. Bella was sitting on the floor, her face filled with horror, as she stared at the window. It took Bella a moment to realize who was on the other side of the glass.

Bella's pallid face turned even paler, and her eyes widened even farther than they had already been—which had already looked as if they were about to pop out of her face—and Bella gasped sharply, yet quietly, as her eyes took in the sight before her.

The figure grimaced, quickly replacing it with a bright smile that made Bella blink quickly and flounder for a moment. A long, pale arm reached out to slowly open the window. The cold-skinned creature was moving slowly, making sure to stress that it meant no harm to the wide-eyed human it was staring at.

The window was open, now, and the vampire slowly, cautiously, stepped inside. Bella's mouth was opening and closing, now; she was speechless that this beautiful creature had returned to her, after such a long time of being neglected.

"Hello," the vampire said, smiling again at Bella, watching the pain form in her eyes as its melodic voice reached her ears. The vampire's eyes tightened in response, but the smile never wavered. "I'm sorry. I couldn't make the others come back with me, but I just _had_ to make sure that you were safe," The vampire explained.

"Why is that?" Bella asked, a hint of curiosity making its way across her face even as pain rooted itself in her eyes.

The vampire hesitated, and Bella seemed to think that she wouldn't get an answer. "Because Edward convinced himself that you were going to kill yourself." The cold- and pale-skinned vampire said the words clearly in the musical vampire voice it possessed, letting the words hang in the air as it allowed Bella some time to think this over.


	5. I'm So Sorry

**A/N:** Sorry about the long wait, I've had _lots_ to do; high school is crueler than my parents could ever…okay, I wouldn't put it past them to shove me into a dungeon and bolt the door, then laugh as I screamed for help, but the teachers are just _cruel_… Anyways, sorry about not updating for, like, _forever_. I've been really busy, and that does nothing to help writer's block. So, without further ado, here's chapter five of _Fate has Bite_. Enjoy!

Chapter 5:

I'm So Sorry

Edward pulled into the old Cullen drive. His silver Volvo purred quietly as he drove it into the garage, and was completely silent as he withdrew the key from the ignition. Edward sat in the driver's seat, his hand tightly gripping the steering wheel, as he debated which angle to come at. He knew Alice would be able to avoid him if he came up with an actual plan, so he kept his choices ready, barely thinking about them at all. Instead, Edward thought about what Alice had seen. Or what he had thought she had seen. Presently, Edward had to take his hand away from the steering wheel to avoid breaking it. How could Alice have been wrong? His mind automatically brought back a conversation he had had with her, a long time ago.

_"My visions aren't _certain_, Edward. They're just a brief flash of what's been planned. The closer a vision is to the present, the more likely it is to occur. Of course, that doesn't mean that they're _not_ going to happen, either."_

Edward pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to hold back the anger he felt. Alice was going to get it. She was _definitely_ going to get it. He smiled smugly, knowing that Alice was probably seeing, right now, what Edward had decided split-second, as of a moment ago. He laughed darkly to himself as he went over the details in his mind, getting out of the car and rushing up to his old room.

_"Because Edward convinced himself that you were going to kill yourself." _Bella waited for the words to sink in, for her to curl up in a ball and start crying endlessly. A tear slowly made its way down her cheek, and her vision blurred with unshed tears. She stared straight ahead as she waited for the waterworks to come. She saw a blurred vampiric shape move to sit beside her, and it wrapped its arms around her, hugging her as if she were a sister. Those cold arms held her as she started to cry, and Bella turned into that embrace, hugging the vampire back. It started to rock her back and forth as Bella cried into its shoulder.

"Bella, why are you crying?" That melodic voice gently asked.

"Oh, Alice, you know why I'm crying!" Bella sobbed into the sprite-like vampire's designer clothes, probably ruining the red material. Alice shushed her, continuing to rock her back and forth while she gently rubbed her back.

"It's ok, Bella. It's ok. Everything's alright, I promise. It's ok," she spoke like this for a minute straight, and then abruptly paused in mid-word, and Bella felt the muscles in Alice's arms tense. Bella looked up at Alice's face in the dark room; she was staring straight ahead, her eyes glassy and distant, as if she was seeing something far away. A moment later, Alice was herself again, chattering away at a mile a minute.

"...need to do something about your room, it's just—plain. And how can you go see Edward wearing that? We'll have to do something about that, too. You'll need new clothes, now that I'm around again…" Alice kept on going, and it took Bella a moment to realize that she had mentioned E—_him_. She gasped quietly, and the tears started to flow again.

Alice stopped talking, noticing the change, and immediately went into pout mode. "Don't tell me that you're not going shopping with me. You _need_ new clothes—" Bella started to sob, and Alice subsided again. In her mind, she quickly ran over the sentence when Bella had started crying again. A moment later, Alice's face was scrunched up with concentration. She fixed Bella with a hard stare.

"What on earth are you crying about now?" she demanded. Bella just cried harder, half-curling up in a ball. Alice blinked, confused, and cocked her head to the side. She decided on another approach. "Well, Edward—" At the sound of his name, Bella cried even harder than she was already, if that was even possible. Alice's eyebrows rose in surprise. "…You don't want to hear about…um, my brother, Bella? I thought you'd be ecstatic to see him again." Bella's sobs slightly quieted, and she attempted to answer Alice.

"It's not—that I—don't—want to see—him, it's that—he—won't want—to s—see—me," she stuttered out, in between the sobs. Alice was surprised at her answer. Of course Edward wanted to see her! Was she blind?!

"Bella, stop speaking nonsense like that. Now, I'll have to find something here for you to wear that's not too—"

"What do you—mean? Why not something fro—from your house?" Bella's sobs were starting to disappear.

"We can't go until you're ready, because Edward's already there—" Bella's gasp made Alice stop abruptly, waiting for the tears to come again, but Bella started shaking instead.

"What do—you mean, A—Alice?" Bella was forcing the words out, trying to get it out quickly, but her sobs were making everything so slow.

Alice frowned. "Ed—I mean, my loving brother who loves you so much is now waiting at my lovely house…" Alice went on for a bit, fitting more "love"s and "lovely"s into the sentence—and, somehow, it didn't sound too bad.

"No, I meant wh—what do you—mean. You s—said that—_he_—was w—waiting for me." Bella said, still sobbing.

Alice's scowl deepened. "Yes, is there something wrong with that?" When Bella just started sobbing again, Alice opened her mouth to speak, but froze again, her muscles going rigid. Bella knew that if she were to look up into Alice's face, she would see her starting straight ahead, her eyes glassy and distant, as if she was seeing something far away; Alice was having another vision. Suddenly, a few moments later, Alice seemed to snap out of it, grinning brilliantly and chattering away at a speed that other vampires probably couldn't keep up with. Bella caught bits and pieces; she was going on about "playing a trick", and "it'd be hilarious", and other nonsense Bella couldn't quite catch. Still sobbing—but not as much as before—Bella leaned back, resigned to wait out Alice's little rant.


End file.
